creative mind-Mike Shafia

Creative Mind Podcast Episode 44: Mike Shafia on Producing Oscar-Worthy Films

Listen in as Mike walks us through not only how the production of an Oscar-winning film runs, from start to finish, and everything in between.

When the script for the short film Two Distant Strangers came into his hands to be co-produced by his production company Cinedyne Films, Mike Shafia knew right away it was an Oscar contender. “Just for me personally, I was able to see this script and think this links very profoundly with the cultural movement of this year,” said Mike Shafia, our guest on this week’s Creative Mind podcast.

Working on a good film is often times the best one can hope for when entering the world of entertainment, producing an Oscar-winning film that is truly the stuff of dreams. “It is quite surreal. I would never have imagined being involved in something like that,” said Mike. 

However, when talking with Mike Shafia it becomes very apparent that how he approaches his work, why he makes his decisions, are part of what has made his career advance to the level it has in just a decade. His company sprang out of his pure desire to be a producer now, not later. Mike did the production assistant route and realized there was nothing stopping him from going out and stepping up.

“I did not want to wait based on some imposed sense of process, I just want to go right to the thing that I want to do.”

MIke Shafia, Cindeyne Films

So Mike launched Cinedyne Films.

Who is Cinedyne Films

“Cinedyne Films is a full-service agency of productivity. Aside from simply being a content creation entity, our overall mission is to foster a proactive, positive environment within the community and provide opportunities for growth; via our PA tutorial videos, after-school production classes for kids, and gig referral services.

We emphasize effective clientele communication and hold the principle of “Occam’s razor”​ in high regard, allowing us to ensure a project outcome that meets the highest standards of quality, while staying within the specified fiscal and temporal parameters. From this place of understanding, it is a simple matter to visualize the action, then actualize the vision.”

Listen in as Mike walks us through not only how the production of an Oscar-winning film runs, from where to park the cars to dealing with pyrotechnics, but also how music videos and commercials are pulled off on the precious commodities of budget and time.


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